The Strangest Year
by mandabean
Summary: During their seventh year, Draco and Hermione take turns being each others' savior and deep emtions result. Can their love survive a world amidst Voldemort, plotting deatheaters and an imminent war? AU, disregarding HBP
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Not mine, as the whole of the Harry Potter universe belongs to JKR. Only in my dreams…

**Ch. 1 A Late Arrival and a Bet**

The students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry knew that this year would be a life-changing one amongst the wizarding community. Voldemort was back with a vengeance and had gained many followers willing to service their Lord to the death. Among these followers, Lucius Malfoy was considered to be the most loyal by Voldemort himself, so it follows that the senior Malfoy would expect the same from his only heir and son, Draco. At the age of seventeen, Draco was considered an adult wizard, and therefore old enough to take the dark mark and join the Deatheaters' forces. The problem was that Draco was not sure that he was willing to do so.

The boy in question sat in the Great Hall during the sorting of the first years preceding the welcoming feast, signifying the start of his seventh and final year at Hogwarts. He was brooding a bit and pondering his most assuredly doomed future, when he was brought out of his haze when he heard his fellow Slytherins discussing the aptly named "Golden Trio." At this he snapped to attention and turned to find his friend, Blaise Zabini.

"What about the Golden Trio?" he asked Blaise, trying to sound bored with the topic at hand.

"It looks like they're missing the fairer, brainier third of the trio." Blaise replied. "Potter and Weasley seem to be concerned about it. "

"Who cares where Granger is?" Draco spat back. "Hopefully she discovered that mudbloods don't belong at wizarding schools and decided to resume her life among the rest of the worthless muggles of the world."

"I see your extremely narrow-minded viewpoints haven't changed over the summer," Blaise said, raising an eyebrow and smirking in amusement.

"Of course my opinions haven't changed. Why would they? You seem to have forgotten that unlike you, I don't have the luxury of forming my own opinions and making my own life choices. I've been raised for 17 years to despise mudbloods, and just because I don't follow Voldemort around and lick his boots for him doesn't mean that I won't continue to hate who I have hated for years." After this outburst, Draco looked away from Blaise to glare down at his dinner plate.

Blaise was surprised and pleased to hear that Draco didn't want to follow Voldemort and also that he seemed to know that his opinions were not his own. He had to admit that Draco was right regarding his luxury of making choices. Although purebloods, his parents had never chosen to follow Voldemort and they also trusted him to make important decisions regarding his future on his own. Lucius Malfoy on the other hand, seemed to want to brainwash Draco and turn him into a carbon-copy of himself.

"Well, Malfoy, since Granger is head girl and all this year and what with you being head boy, I just wondered if you were going to be able to handle being in such close quarters with her all year." Blaise stated casually. "Speaking of which, I wonder where she is. It's not like Granger to miss the sorting, especially if she's head girl."

Just then, the head girl herself hurried into the Great Hall, holding the hand of a young raven-haired girl who appeared to be a first year. She pulled the young girl over to where Professor McGonagall was standing and spoke quietly to her. After a brief whispered conversation, Hermione Granger patted the girl's shoulder encouragingly and walked over to the Gryffindor table to sit between Harry and Ron who were looking at her with concerned, worried expressions.

Draco had been watching Granger from the second she set foot in the Great Hall and was slightly blown away by the strange feelings he had experienced when he first saw her. She looked about the same, maybe a little bit taller and slightly more filled out. Granger had always been pretty, even for a mudblood, despite all of the tortuous comments he made regarding her appearance, but this year she had something else going for her. It was the way she now carried herself that made her that much more physically appealing to Draco. She seemed sure of herself, in a confident, womanly sort of manner. She held her head high, her posture was straight and she bestowed a dazzling smile at her fellow students as she walked past to them sit at her house table.

"Damn, Granger looks good this year, "Blaise commented. Many male Slytherins sitting nearby agreed out loud with him.

"As a matter of fact, I'd say that she's looking extremely fuckable," said Theo Nott, another Slytherin, with a glint in his eyes and a typical Slytherin smirk. More noises of agreement came from the Slytherin males, excluding Draco.

Draco felt a sudden surge of…something…possibly annoyance, he thought, and he had to fight the urge to snap at both Blaise and Theo. Instead he rolled his eyes and sneered at them, hoping they figured his reaction was due to his pureblooded snobbery.

"I'd fuck her for sure," Blaise said, sneaking a look at Draco from the corner of his eye.

"Not if I get to her first," Theo retorted.

"How about a bet then? We both have until the Halloween Ball to get into the Head girl's knickers. With Draco being the Head boy, she'll be even more accessible to us nasty Slytherins," Blaise drawled with a smirk.

"You're on, said Theo. "Whoever gets her first wins, and the loser owes the winner 100 galleons."

Draco rolled his eyes again. "You two can't be serious. First of all, it's _Granger_. She'll hex your balls off for even looking at her. Second of all, my being Head boy has nothing to do with this. I refuse to help either one of you dirty up your dicks with the mudblood," he said disgustedly. In truth, he _was_ disgusted but not for the reason he was trying to convey. Thanks to his father and his…associates…Draco had seen enough mistreatment of women throughout his lifetime to scar him forever. Save for Pansy, he had never used a woman for sex, or for any other purpose. The idea of either Blaise or Theo using Granger to fulfill a bet made him feel a burning pain in his chest and stomach that he couldn't quite put a name to. Mudblood or not, Granger deserved to be treated better.

'Well,' he thought to himself, 'This year is going to be a strange one indeed.'

A.N: Next chapter, we see Hermione's POV and find out why she was late to the sorting.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Anything's Better than Slytherin!**

Hermione Granger said her goodbyes to Harry and Ron as they parted ways upon walking in Hogwarts to being their final year of school. As usual, Ron was "starving to death," so she had told them to go along to the sorting of the first years without her so she could fulfill the duty Professor McGonagall had asked of the Head girl upon arriving at the school. Before making her way to the Great Hall, she was to walk the corridors of the school and make sure that there were no lost first years wandering the halls instead of being sorted into their respective houses.

As she walked through the corridors, Hermione found herself deep in thought and already saddened at the prospect of leaving the school for good at the end of the year. The Hogwart's castle had become her home throughout the past six years, and although she had enjoyed seeing her parents and old friends during the summer, nothing compared to the elation of being back at Hogwarts.

While she was pondering this, Hermione froze when she thought she heard the sound of someone sniffling. She stopped in her tracks and listened carefully trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. Hermione walked around the corner and looked all around trying to find the source of what she was now certain was something crying.

"Hello?" she called apprehensively through the empty corridor. "Who's there?"

When she failed to get a reply to her query, Hermione used her wand to direct her to the source. "Point me," she said and sure enough, her wand pointed her in the direction of a broom cupboard and she slowly but surely opened the door to the closet. Inside, she found a young, black-haired, puffy-eyed girl sitting on the floor, staring up at her with a sorrowful expression. Hermione kneeled down so that she would be at the girl's level and looked at her with a concerned face.

"Are you okay? What are you doing in the cupboard? You should be at the welcoming feast. What year are you in?" At the barrage of questions, the young girl stopped crying and wiped at her red eyes and runny nose. In a watery voice, she replied, "I'm a first year."

"What is your name, darling?" Hermione asked the girl softly, unwilling and unable to scold her for being in a broom closet instead of being seated under the sorting hat, which was where she should have been.

The raven-haired girl was still sniffling, but had pulled herself together enough to reply, "Katie. Katie Chan."

"Well, Katie, I'm Hermione, the Head girl. Would you like to talk about whatever it is that's bothering you?" she asked softly.

"I just miss my mum and dad is all. I…I've never been away from them before." Saying the words aloud seemed to set her off again and this time the poor girl began sobbing with a vengeance, burying her face in her arms. Hermione sat down on the floor outside of the closet and began patting Katie's arm.

"Oh sweetie, I know just how you feel," Hermione soothed. "I missed my parents terribly when I first came to Hogwarts too. But then I made some really fantastic friends here at school, and I began to adjust to being away from my mum and dad after a while.

"Besides," she continued, "Christmas break comes faster then you think. And then you'll get three whole weeks to spend at home with your family. In the meantime, you'll do just fine, Katie. I promise." Katie looked at Hermione and saw her bright, reassuring smile and seemed to feel somewhat better.

"We need to get you to the Sorting now. Aren't you excited to see what house you'll be in?"

"I'm hoping to be in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor," Katie replied. "But anything is better than Slytherin." As she said this, she giggled a bit and then made a face. Hermione grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet, then put her arm around her shoulders as they walked in the direction of the Great Hall.

Once inside the enormous dining room, Hermione hurried Katie to the front of the room, near the faculty table to where the Sorting was taking place. From the looks of things, the sorting was very near to being complete. Professor McGonagall saw Hermione walking over to her with her arm around the small girl's shoulders and she smiled down at Katie. Hermione quickly and quietly explained that Katie had "gotten lost" in the halls of the school, patted the girl on the shoulder and then Professor McGonagall swept Katie towards a high stool and placed the Sorting Hat on her head. Hermione heard the hat call out "Ravenclaw!" as she walked towards the Gryffindor table and smiled to herself.

As Hermione walked towards Ron and Harry, she couldn't help but look over at the Slytherin table where the new Head Boy was sitting. She was slightly alarmed when she noticed he was looking directly at her, along with Blaise Zabini, Theodore Nott and most of the other Slytherins sitting nearby the other three. Quickly, she turned her gaze toward her friends and noticed them looking at her with questioning expressions, probably wondering what had taken her so long to get to the Sorting. When she reached Ron and Harry, they both moved down a little so that she could sit between them.

"Gods, 'Mione, what took so long?" Ron whispered to her. Harry was also looking at her expectantly as if waiting to hear her reply.

"Oh, a first year got lost on her way here, so I had to show her how to get here." Hermione felt that Katie deserved some privacy and that nobody needed to know she had found her crying in a broom closet.

The boys were distracted then when food began to appear on the long tables. They both began filling their plates with food and talking through mouthfuls of dinner. Hermione shook her head and smiled to herself. Her boys would never change.

Across the table from her was Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, who could safely be known as the gossip of Hogwarts.

"_So_ Hermione," Lavender began, with a smug look on her face, "looking forward to sharing living quarters with Draco Malfoy this year?"

"I would be!" gushed Parvati. "That boy is hot!"

"Well, I don't know about him being hot or not, but actually, no, I'm not really looking forward to it at all," Hermione replied blithely. She wasn't lying either. The fact that she would be sharing her living quarters and head duties with Malfoy of all people had actually put a damper on her excitement upon receiving notification that she had been awarded with the title of Head Girl. She swept her eyes towards him again, feeling a strange pull to do so and was again slightly disconcerted when she noticed his eyes, along with those of his friends were still on her. She sighed, as she thought to herself '_This is going the be the strangest year yet_!'


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: What the Hell Just Happened?**

**Disclaimer: All of this belongs to JKR, that lucky lady ;)**

After the last of the dessert plates had disappeared from the tables, and sleepy students began departing the Great Hall in search of warm beds, Hermione noticed Professor McGonagall approaching the Gryffindor table, and saw Snape talking to Malfoy over at the Slytherin table.

"Miss Granger, Professor Snape and I will now escort Mr. Malfoy and yourself to the Heads' rooms." Hermione stood from the table, ready to face her doom, Draco Malfoy himself. She had to admit, she was excited to see what the new rooms would look like. She hurried to follow Professor McGonagall over to where Snape and Malfoy were standing, waiting to meet outside the doors to the Great Hall, surly expressions on both of their faces.

"Granger," was his curt greeting.

"Malfoy," she replied, trying not to roll her eyes.

The two Professors lead the way, leaving Hermione and Malfoy to follow behind them. The two students glared at each other, both attempting to create a sense of normalcy for themselves; however both were feeling a bit awkward around the other for some as yet unnamed reason. The Professors stopped in front of a portrait of a lion and snake, and turned to the Head Boy and Girl.

"The password is "Grindylow" but the two of you will need to decide together on a new password and change it as soon as possible," Professor McGonagall told them looking from Hermione to Draco with a stern expression on her face. No doubt she was concerned about the rapport between the two Head students, but she figured that Dumbledore must have had his reasons for choosing to put the two together.

As the foursome entered the Heads' common room, Hermione couldn't help but be enraptured with the beauty of the room. The room was done in rich shades of red, green taupe and plum, which gave it a very warm, cozy feel. There was a spiral staircase leading up to the bedrooms, which were done in the respective house colors and both Hermione and Draco were relieved to discover that they would each have their own bathrooms.

After a short lecture on what would be expected from them as the Head students, Professors McGonagall and Snape departed from the Heads' quarters, leaving Hermione and Draco standing together awkwardly in the common room. Draco stood leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest and a sneer on his face. Hermione looked up him defiantly, refusing to let him intimidate her.

"Malfoy are you going to at least try to be civil this year? Or are you going to make this whole…arrangement…even more difficult than it needs to be?"

Draco took a step closer to Hermione and leaned down slightly to look her directly in the face. "Oh Granger, you just can't stop being a conceited, know-it-all little mudblood, can you?"

Hermione snorted. "Conceited? Me? Ha! That's rich, coming from you. I've never known anyone who better fit the description of conceited than _you_ in my entire life!"

"Yes, well," Draco drawled, "I have so many things to be conceited about." At this he pretended to study his perfectly manicured fingernails.

"Oh, really?" Hermione challenged. "Like what? Like that fact that you are a little pureblood snob, whose father is Voldemort's number one ankle-licker? Is that a reason to be conceit…?"

Malfoy grabbed Hermione by the wrist and turned her around so that her back was against the wall he had been leaning against previously, and used his other arm to pin her to the wall by her shoulders. His facial expression was dangerous as he spat, "Don't you ever speak of my father and that…that…psychopath in the same sentence ever again. In fact, don't ever speak of my father ever again. _You_ are not worthy of even speaking to or about a Malfoy!"

Hermione fought to keep herself from trembling and her face from showing her fear. When she spoke, she willed her voice not to shake. "What are you going to _do_ Malfoy? Are you going to _hit_ me?" she spat back at him.

Draco looked at her long and hard then, and Hermione looked right back at him with the same amount of fire in her eyes. Then suddenly, his eyes seem to glaze over and soften a bit. He brushed a few strands of hair out of her eyes as he looked into them, and then completely shocked Hermione by gazing down at her lips and running his fingers over them.

"No, I'm not going to hit you," he said softly. "I could never hit you." Hermione stared at him in disbelief. What had just happened? After a few seconds, it seemed that the spell was broken, because he jerked her away from the wall, released his hold on her, and then stalked off to his bedroom and slammed the door behind him.

Hermione stood there, dumbfounded for a few seconds before shaking her head and walking to her own bedroom. 'What the hell just happened?' she thought to herself.

She was still thinking about the encounter between herself and Draco while she brushed her teeth and washed her face before going to bed. Standing in the bathroom in front of the mirror, Hermione just gazed at herself for a minute, still trying to figure it out. 'If I didn't know better, I'd say that he was almost…tender. But it's Malfoy! Whatever,' she thought. "I'm exhausted, that's all.'

Meanwhile, in the Head boy's room, Draco was sitting on his bed, hands pressed to his forehead, having conflicting thoughts of his own.

"Stupid mudblood Granger!" he groaned to himself. If she hadn't gotten in his face to begin with, none of this would have happened. 'Then again', he thought, 'why is it such a big deal? It's not like anything happened, really.' It's just that when he looked in her eyes and saw the anger and determination there, as she dared him to hit her, everything changed. But what had possessed him to caress her hair, her lips? And he had wanted so much more from her right then. Sighing, Draco undressed and got into bed, where he proceeded to toss and turn violently in his sleep, plagued by worrisome dreams involving his father, the Dark Lord, Harry Potter and most disturbingly, Hermione Granger.

Draco awoke early the next morning, not feeling particularly rested and headed straight to the shower. After showering and dressing for the day, he decided to go into the common room and begin reading the first chapters of his textbooks. He hoped that it would be early enough that he could avoid running into Hermione that morning, as he wasn't sure what he would say to her regarding the events of the previous night.

He sat on the sofa, opened his Transfiguration book and attempted to begin reading. Growing frustrated with the fact that he kept reading the same paragraph over and over again and still had no clue as to the words he had just read. Giving up, he gathered up his school books for the day and headed to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Hermione rose from her bed, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, and feeling, well to put it bluntly, like shit. She had a pounding headache and felt as if she hadn't slept at all the night before. Grumbling to herself, she went to the bathroom, showered, dressed and primped as little as possible for the day ahead. She used her fingers to separate her curls and applied a small amount of mascara and lip gloss. Noticing that her face still appeared deathly pale, she also applied a bit of blusher to her cheeks. Satisfied that she resembled a human being again, she then left to meet Harry, Ron and Ginny in the Gryffindor common room before breakfast so they could all walk to the Great Hall together.

Pausing in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady, she opened her mouth to give the password, but before she could utter a word, the portrait swung open and her three friends burst out into the hall, almost knocking Hermione down in the process.

"Hey, 'Mione!" Ginny cried, throwing her arms around her friend. "We were just talking about you!"

"Oh?" Hermione asked, hugging Ginny back, and looking from Ron to Harry. "What about me?"

"We were just talking about how sorry we feel for you having to spend the whole year with Malfoy in the room next to your bedroom." Ron said with a sour look on his face.

"Yeah, 'Mione," Harry started, "how was it with Malfoy last night? Did it feel weird to be that close to him?"

"Excuse me?" Hermione was caught off guard for a second, thinking that they somehow knew about what had taken place between herself and Draco the night before. Fixing Harry with a look, she waited to hear his reply.

"Well, I mean, err…, you are sharing living quarters with him. Did he do anything to you? Or did you have to talk to him or anything?"

Hermione relaxed visibly, although she noticed Ginny giving her a suspicious look, and began heading in the direction of the Great Hall, with her friends following behind her. "Of course he didn't do anything to me," she said. "I could handle Malfoy any day and he knows it. But yes, I am going to have to talk to him quite frequently regarding head duties and such."

Rolling theirs eyes, both Harry and Ron made sympathetic noises; Ginny, however, remained silent, appearing thoughtful.

"You know, 'Mione," she said, "It really wouldn't be such a bad thing for you to get to know Malfoy pretty well this year." At the shocked faces of Ron, Harry and Hermione, she continued hurriedly, "Well, I just mean that it could prove useful to Harry in defeating Voldemort. Malfoy is almost assuredly a Death Eater by now, or at least we know his father and most of his friends are…" Hermione was speechless at this point, and Ron stopped Ginny right there.

"Ginny, have you lost your bloody mind?" he practically screamed. "Do you actually it would be a good idea for Hermione to get all buddy-buddy with that slimy ferret? Are you trying to get her killed?" Harry too looked positively appalled.

"Really, Ginny," he said in a calmer voice than that of Ron's, "I think that's probably the last thing "Mione needs right now, to be making friends with Malfoy. He's treated her just as horribly, if not worse, than the rest of us in the time we've known him."

Hermione was still reeling from the entire conversation and finally managed to squeak out an indignant reply. "Are you all crazy? Why are you even still discussing this?" She turned to Ginny. "Sorry, Gin, but it's never going to happen. What makes you think that Malfoy would even give me a chance to get…close…enough to him to get any information from him?" The four friends made their way into the Great Hall and took their usual seats at the Gryffindor table. Ron and Harry or course immediately began stuffing their faces.

Nodding her head, Ginny looked over at the Slytherin table and said, "Okay maybe not Malfoy. But what about another Slytherin, maybe Blaise Zabini or Theo Nott? They've never been rotten towards any of us. And aren't they Malfoy's best friends?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Why me, though? If you want to get information from Blaise, why don't you or Ron or Harry go become best friends with him? You all see him as much as I do. Same with Nott."

Ginny smiled knowingly at her. "No actually, Hermione, I think you're the only one for the job. I was watching those two watch you yesterday, and I think that playing your cards right, you could get just about anything out of those two."

Hermione looked over towards the Slytherin table and was startled when she noticed that Ginny was right. Both Blaise and Theo were currently staring right in her direction. Well, in Theo's case, leering might be a better way of putting it. Even stranger was the fact that another pair of eyes had settled on her as well. A pair of smoldering, grey eyes, belonging to the Head boy, in fact.

Hermione jerked her eyes away from the Slytherin table and stood up from the table, gathering her belongings.

"You know, I actually need to get to the library. I had wanted to finish reading the chapter for Transfiguration," she said, waving goodbye to her surprised and confused friends, walking quickly out of the Great Hall.

"Granger's looking hot today," Blaise commented from the Slytherin table, sneaking a glance over at Draco, who had his head down, appearing to be positively entranced with moving the food on his breakfast plate with his fork.

"Damn straight," Theo commented, licking his lips rather creepily. Malfoy finally looked up and gave Theo a look of disgust.

"Are you two still on about that?" he asked, trying to sound nonchalant. He had felt a strange, rather protective twinge at the sound of his friends' comments regarding Granger. "Nott, I know your father would have a fit if he thought you were pursuing a muggle-born witch."

"Oh, he doesn't care who have a roll in the sack with. As long as I don't knock her up with my heirs, than it's all fine," Theo replied with a smug smile on his aristocratically handsome face.

"Lovely," muttered Draco, feeling rather grouchy.

"Lucky for me, my parents could care less about shite like that," Blaise said. "As long as I end up with a reasonably intelligent, attractive witch who can give me smart, cute kids, than I'm in the clear." "Not that I plan on marrying Granger, "he added, smirking. "I just plan on shagging her brains out."

Draco found his eyes wandering then, once again recounting his and Hermione's strange conversation, if you could call it that. He remembered how silky her hair felt and how soft and full her lips were. Just then, Hermione looked up and met his eyes and he felt a warm feeling spread through him. After a second, she quickly averted her eyes, spoke quickly to her friends and grabbing her books, left the Great Hall.

"I wonder where she is off to in such a hurry," said Blaise, sounding amused.

"Oh come on, Blaise, it's Granger. Where else would she be headed, but the library!" commented Theo.

"Hmmm," he said, smirking, "this could be fun. What do you say we follow her to the library? We've got to keep an eye on our conquest, after all."

Surprising both Blaise and Theo, Draco stood and said, "Let's go, then." The three Slytherins marched out of the Great Hall to follow the Head Girl, each with different intentions in mind.

A.N. Hope you enjoy this chapter. In the next chapter, we'll find out what those three boys are planning. I've already got Chapter 4 about halfway done. XXOO


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